_The Advice of_ Paphnutius _was applauded by the whole Assembly_, add the above-mentioned Historians, _and the Point in Dispute was left undecided_. In the Year 340. it was decreed, in the Council of _Arles_, that, _no Man, incumbered with a Wife, should be admitted to Holy Orders, unless he promised, with his Wife’s Approbation and Consent, to abstain for ever from the conjugal Duty_. This is all I can find in the antient Records concerning the Continence or Celibacy of the Clergy, before the Time of _Syricius_. And hence it is manifest, that both _Crichtonæus_ and _Melanchthon_ were greatly mistaken; the former in affirming, which many have done after him, that Celibacy was first imposed upon the Clergy by _Syricius_[1243]; and the latter by confidently asserting, that Celibacy was not required of the Ministers of the Gospel by any Council, but by the Popes, in Opposition to all Councils and Synods[1244]. It must be owned, however, that this Law was not so generally observed before the Time of _Syricius_, as it was after. For it was not long after his Time before it became an established Point of Discipline in most of the Western Churches, not in virtue of his Letter, or of those which his Successors writ to the same Purpose, but because it was injoined by the Synods of each particular Nation. Thus it was established in _Africa_ by the Council of _Carthage_ in 390. in _Gaul_ by one held at _Orleans_, by Two at _Tours_, and one at _Agde_; in _Spain_, by Three held at _Toledo_; in _Germany_, by the Councils of _Aquisgranum_, or _Aix la Chapelle_, of _Worms_, and of _Mentz_. We know of none in _Britain_: and that it did not even begin to take place here till the Arrival of _Austin_, in the Sixth Century, may be sufficiently proved from the Letters of that Monk to _Gregory_, and _Gregory_’s Answer to him; but of that more hereafter[N23]. ----- Footnote N23: